Friday, January 14, 2011

Should we start by announcing the winners or by telling you all about our TNNA trip?

*hears shouts coming from cyberspace saying "tell us about TNNA!!" *

Alright alright! We'll tell you about our great trip to Long Beach and then let you know who the winners are. Where to start?

This year our head knitter, Laura, decided to take Miss Sandy (our eldest and eldest employee) to do some hands on investigation of all the new and wonderful products at the show. Sandy walked the entire floor on the first day!! What a woman!

She's keeping some products under wraps, but I heard that she's already picked out 3 or 4 patterns from the upcoming Rowan Magazine 49 to work up!

Also, she couldn't help but buy amazing needles from a new company, Indian Lake Artisans. She got a pair of bulky size 11's with cute acorns on the top! (Shhh. Don't tell but I definitely saw her petting them over the course of the weekend!)

We got to have coffee with Julie Turjoman, author of Brave New Knits! What an incredible book and she is such a nice lady. :) I was lucky enough to be able to tag along too and introduce myself to a whole bunch our partners!

Norah is a favorite at Jimmy Beans Wool and you can tell from the wide selection of her pattern books that we carry. Both of these ladies are lucky enough to be working with the wonderful folks over at Berroco. Check out our video reviews of all of their great products on our website!!

Here are Laura and Matt from Prism Yarn Company! Their booth was breathtaking! We will be featuring them in a blog this spring, so stay tuned!

I'm currently working on one of her patterns for a top down cardigan with Lorna's Laces Green Line Worsted in Caramel Pumpkin Latte. We've sold out of that limited edition color but there is plenty more Green Line Worsted up from grabs (AND it's on sale!!)!

I have to tell you that there were so many wonderful people and fantastic products that it's hard to name them all. I did have the pleasure of getting to know the Madelinetosh team who were not only super nice, but also had a great booth!

In front they had an old school chalk board where they were taping Polaroids of passersby with note cards that stated their favorite Madelinetosh color. Mine was Citrus! Just looking at it brings a smile to my face.

And Lantern Moon! What an incredible group of people! They were celebrating their 10 year anniversary while at TNNA. Have you seen their blog? Check it out here to read Michelle's fun and informative posts. We also met Iris from ArtYarns who taught me a few things about facebooking!

Editorial Director Trisha Malcolm and Director of Ad Sales Doreen Connors from Soho Publishing (who produce Vogue Knitting) taught us a thing or two about ping pong. They were sharing their excitement about the Vogue Knitting Live that is starting in less than 2 weeks! They've got the most amazing line up of teachers ever put together in one space! Good luck, Ladies!

Overall it was a wonderful experience and we had a ton of fun!

Oh, right, the winners. ;)

As you know, we were running 2 giveaways at a time. The in-store winner is: Marcie from East Lansing MI. See! We can be anyone and everyone's LYS! If you are ever in Reno, stop in!

The online winner is Mystery Writer!! Please email your snail mail address to giveaway@jimmybeanswool.com to claim your signed copy of the amazing book "The Knitter's Guide To Hand-Dyed And Variegated Yarn" by Lorna Miser within 24 hours or we will pick another winner.